Buy side

SAN FRANCISCO - Moody's Investors Service assigned a negative outlook to the entire tax-backed local government sector yesterday. It is the first time the agency has ever had a negative outlook on the sector.

Management fees for many municipal bond mutual funds have jumped this year because of the drainage of fund assets at the end of last year.

A slate of new offerings - anchored by a pair of deals from New York and California issuers - is expected in the municipal market this week. While the total is considerable, the size of the deals will be in stark contrast to the multibillion dollar issues the market digested over the past two weeks.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association will no longer recommend early closes on trading days before most holidays to allow more continuous access to trading liquidity.

Cash influxes into municipal bond mutual funds persisted last week - albeit at a slower pace - as state and local government debt continued to gain traction among retail investors.

Nearly all of The Bond Buyer’s weekly yield indexes declined this week, as tax-exempt bonds firmed up in nearly all sessions and new-issue supply lightened substantially from last week’s deluge.

Death and disease know no recession. Hospitals do.

Outflows of $1.87 billion for the week ending March 30 caused tax-exempt money market funds to start the second quarter with $482.57 billion in total assets, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

WASHINGTON - Continuing care retirement communities face more rating downgrades than upgrades in 2009 because of limited access to capital, slower unit re-occupancy caused by falling real estate values, and significantly reduced liquidity due to losses on investments, Fitch Ratings said yesterday.

The composition of municipal bonds coming to market is making it harder for some investors to diversify their portfolios.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department extended its $3 trillion temporary guarantee program for money market mutual funds through Sept. 19 to provide continued reassurance for investors.

Cash influxes into municipal bond mutual funds continued to accelerate last week as state and local government debt rallied amid an upsurge in the broader financial markets.

The municipal market faces a calendar of $4.59 billion of new debt this week, smaller but still sizable, after devouring the $6.5 billion California general obligation sale last week with only a slight uptick in yields, according to data from Thomson Reuters.

The Bond Buyer’s weekly yield indexes were mixed this week, as an onslaught of more than $10 billion of primary market supply dominated the municipal market landscape.

The assets of tax-exempt money market funds fell by $1.32 billion and settled at $484.44 billion for the week ending March 23, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Investors looking to retire in a decade or two wish they could still bank on 8% annual returns on their portfolios.

Banks across the nation managed to slightly increase their holdings of municipal debt in 2008 and reach their highest level of ownership since 1991, despite the turmoil that transformed the securities and banking industries last year, according to annual information compiled by Highline Data LLC.

After digesting a revised $5.23 billion of new issues last week - highlighted by the mostly oversubscribed $1.54 billion Wisconsin state appropriation financing - California this week will leave an even larger footprint in the primary with its planned $4 billion sale of general obligation bonds as volume soars to an estimated $9.25 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

Cash influxes into municipal bond mutual funds accelerated last week as state and local government debt continued to gain traction among retail investors.

After one week of inflows, tax-exempt money market funds returned to negative territory, losing $7.3 billion for the week ending March 16 with $485.76 billion, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.